EXPERIMENTAL ROAD DUST MEASUREMENT DEVICE

By Thomas G. Sanders1 and Jonathan Q. Addo2

(Reviewed by the Highway Division)

ABSTRACT: Most unpaved road dust measuring devices have employed one or more of the air sampling
techniques used by atmospheric scientists, namely, sedimentation, filtration, and photometric techniques. The
dust measurement quantifications have been for a section of unpaved road either involving the use of moving
devices, or at a point(s) along a section involving the use of a stationary device. Devices based on the photometric
technique have measured and quantified dust on a real-time basis without laboratory analyses of field data, while
devices based on the sedimentation and filtration techniques have relied on laboratory analyses of field data for
dust quantification. The Colorado State University dustometer, an experimental road dust measurement device
based on the filtration technique is presented in this paper. The device and technique were developed, field
tested, and used in comparative fugitive dust emission studies at Colorado State University and documented by
Addo and Sanders. The device, which is basically a moving dust sampler, consists of a standard high volumetric
sampler with associated filter media and accessories mounted on the rear of a pickup truck. Many dust mea-
surements can be made in a single day using the dustometer. The dustometer has proved to be a very quantitative,
reproducible, and precise measurement device for unpaved road dust measurements.

INTRODUCTION partment of transportation sponsored research project at Col-

In the United States there are over 2,600,000 mi of roads
and streets that carry low traffic volumes, and over 1,000,000
mi of these roads are unpaved road [Federal Highway Admin-
istration (FHWA) 1992]. The loss of fines and the subsequent
deterioration of unpaved roads often lead to high maintenance
costs especially in the form of aggregate replacement cost.
Hoover et al. (1981) reported that in 1978 the secondary road
departments of Iowa’s 99 counties spent $32,267,661 for ag-
gregate replacement alone. The U.S. Forest Service, which has
over 324,900 mi of aggregate and earth-surface roads under
its jurisdiction spent over $64,000,000 in federal appropria-
tions on road maintenance, which included over $25,000,000
on dust control alone in 1985 (Irwin et al. 1986). The problem
of unpaved road dust cannot be overlooked. High maintenance
cost, increased road user cost, governmental regulations to
meet atmospheric air quality standards, public awareness of
road dust problems, and the loss of fines from the road surface,
among other things, have raised concerns about the quality of
unpaved roads. These have led to increased interest in re-
evaluating current dust control management practices.
The purpose of dust control is to stabilize the road surfaces
by causing the finer soil particles to be firmly bounded to the
coarser aggregates. Not only is road life prolonged, but less
particulate air pollution results. Currently, dust palliation is
achieved by the reduction of vehicular speed, spraying of
water on the road surface, and the use of dust suppressing
chemicals. Although dust control studies have been ongoing
for several decades now with numerous attempts to measure
and quantify dust from unpaved roads, there is lack of any
uniform, standard, repeatable/reproducible, and quantitative
method or technique for measuring road dust.
The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to present a quan-
titative dust measuring device—the Colorado State University
dustometer—and the technique developed and used in a de-
1
Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Civ. Engrg., Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins,
CO 80523-1372.
2
Proj. Engr., The Sears-Brown Group.
Note. Discussion open until May 1, 2001. To extend the closing date
one month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of
Journals. The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and
possible publication on November 5, 1999. This paper is part of the
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Vol. 126, No. 6, November/
December, 2000. 䉷ASCE, ISSN 0733-947X/00/0006-0530–0535/$8.00
⫹ $.50 per page. Paper No. 22103.
530 / JOURNAL OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING / NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2000
orado State University entitled ‘‘Relative Effectiveness and
Environmental Impact of Road Dust Suppressants’’ (Addo and
Sanders 1995).
Dust Measurement (Previous Work)
Most of the research done in dust measurement has been in
the area of atmospheric pollution. The focus of the atmos-
pheric scientists has largely been in aerosol size particulate
measurement and contribution of dust from unpaved roads to
the total particulate loading in the atmosphere. In the area of
dust measurement the studies have focused mainly on two ar-
eas: (1) Atmospheric modeling and prediction; and (2) field
measurement and quantification.
Methods of air sampling used in the area of atmospheric
pollution can be classified as sedimentation techniques, filtra-
tion techniques, and photometric techniques. The sedimenta-
tion technique is a simple sampling method used for measuring
particle fallout or dust fallout from the atmosphere [ASTM
D 1739 (ASTM 1993)]. The method involves the use of open-
top collectors, which are usually glass jars or metal or plastic
containers, having a height about 2–3 times the diameter. Af-
ter an exposure period, usually a month, the amount of partic-
ulates collected are expressed in terms of weight per unit area
per 30 days. The sedimentation method depends upon gravity
and is therefore limited to particle sizes of about 2 ␮m or
greater. The details of the procedure are outlined in ASTM D
1739. The technique has many disadvantages, which include,
the length of time for one sampling event, errors in the weight
of dust sampled caused by foreign matter mixing with dust
collected, and the effect of prevailing winds on the dust sam-
pling.
The filtration technique involves the suction of air over a
filter media. The choice of filter media and sampling instru-
ment is governed largely by the type of test to be performed
and the information that is sought. For example, in the deter-
mination of mass concentration per unit volume of air, the
primary objective is to collect a weighable quantity of partic-
ulates within a reasonable period by means of a high-efficiency
filter that has comparatively low resistance to high airflow
rates. The high volumetric sampler is an example of such a
device that employs the filtration technique. One major dis-
advantage of this sampling technique is that electric power is
required to run the sampler pump, and thus the use of the

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technique in remote locations is impossible without a portable
generator(s).
The photometric technique is based upon light scattering or
absorption properties of particles passing through a light
source. Particles of all sizes may reduce visibility by absorbing
light. The amount of light scattered depends upon the concen-
tration, size, refractive index, shape, and color of the sus-
pended particles.
A particle size of 10 ␮m (PM10) or less are most often mea-
sured because of the health hazard posed by such micrometer
size particulate matter in the atmosphere. Particulate matter of
size 10 ␮m (PM10) or less are noted to be retained in the
human respiratory system (K. Gottschalk, unpublished inde-
pendent study, 1994).
The need to quantify unpaved road dust generated by ve-
hicles has led to many quantitative dust studies. Several of
these studies have proposed mathematical models for the gen-
eration and distribution of particulate emission from various
sources (Robinson et al., 1971; D. C. Becker, unpublished MS
thesis, 1978). D. C. Becker (unpublished MS thesis, 1978)
applied a Gaussian plane model to project dust generation
from unpaved roads in Iowa and Kansas and concluded that
dust levels of 60 mg/m3 of air drawn using a high volumetric
sampler were not exceeded at approximately 20 ft from either
side of the unpaved roads. Hoover et al. (1973) using station-
ary collectors placed adjacent to unpaved roads measured dust
levels in the range of 6–110 lbs/acre/day. The U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA) in its attempt to estimate the
amount of dust generated from unpaved roads published a for-
mula [AP-42 (Compilation 1988)] that can be used to estimate
unpaved road dust amounts. The empirical equation is based
upon the properties of the road base material; the number,
weight, and speed of passing vehicles; and the number of dry
days per year. The formula predicts the emissions of particle
size in the range of 10 ␮m (PM10) or less (Compilation 1988).
The equation is defined as follows:
E = 5.9K(S/12)(V/30)(W/3)0.7(w/4)0.5(d/365)
where E = emission factor (lbs/vehicle-mi) of PM10 particles;
K = proportionality constant specific to the aerosol size range
of emitted particles (0.45 for PM10); S = silt content of the
road surface material (% of mass smaller than 75 ␮m); V =
vehicle speed (mi/h); W = vehicle weight (tons); w = number
of wheels on the vehicle; and d = number of dry days per year
with <0.01 in. of rain. Dust distribution from unpaved roads
has also been found to decrease linearly with the logarithm of
distance from the center of the roadway (Handy et al. 1975).
One source quantifies the road dust level well: ‘‘For every day
for a year, one ton of dust is deposited along a 1000-ft corridor
centered on the road’’ (What 1983).
The devices and techniques developed to measure road dust
generated from vehicular activities employ one or more of the
three particulate sampling techniques mentioned earlier
namely: sedimentation, filtration and photometric techniques.
Hoover et al. (1973) used a sedimentation technique involving
cups installed by the side of unpaved roads to provide data on
the nature of dust generation and distribution. Wellman and
Barraclough (1972) used visible light (photometric method) to
measure dust concentration at a point along an aggregate sur-
face road. Langon (1984), using a filtration technique, built a
portable cyclone dust collector and mounted it at the rear of
a dust generation vehicle to measure the road dust over a sec-
tion of the road instead of at a point. More recently, Irwin et
at. (1986), in a cooperative study between Cornell University
and the USDA Forest Service, developed a device that mea-
sured the road dust in terms of air opacity using the photo-
metric technique. Each of the dust measurement techniques
employed, however, had its limitations.
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Studies by Iowa State University
In an effort to quantify the dust fallout from aggregate sur-
faced roads, dust particulate collections were conducted by
Iowa State University during the spring and fall months of
1978 through 1980 in a dust control and unpaved road surface
improvement project (Hoover et al. 1981). The dust collection
was done in order to assess the effectiveness of the various
dust control and surface improvement processes. The dust col-
lectors consisted of a 15.2 cm (6 in.) diameter ⫻ 19 cm (7
in.) deep semirigid plastic container, mounted 100 cm (3 ft)
above ground level in accordance with ASTM D 1739. The
dust data were analyzed by plotting on log-log scale the quan-
tity of the dust deposited in pounds per acre per day per 100
vehicles versus the distance from the centerline of the road-
way.
Kittleman (1973), Eaton (1964), and A. J. Lutenegger (un-
published PhD dissertation 1979) concluded that the deposi-
tion of particulates due to sedimentation varied logarithmically
with distance from the source of generation. However, during
the Iowa project, Hoover (1981) observed that the dust fall in
any of the directions measured did not follow a perfect log-
log relationship. He noted that dust quantities during any pe-
riod of the measurement were affected by the direction and
velocity of the prevailing wind, topography of the road, trees,
vegetation, moisture content of the roadway surface, type of
roadway surfacing, humidity, and other factors.
Dust measurement by ASTM D 1739 is not without prob-
lems. In addition to the time-consuming laboratory work of
sample drying, removal of foreign matter and weighing of dust
samples, the amount of dust collected can only quantify the
road dustiness at a specific point along the stretch of road.
Due to the natural variations on the roadway (upgrades, down-
grades, curves, etc.), the level of dust measured at a single
point cannot be used to characterize the degree of dustiness
for an entire road section.
Photoelectric Dust Densitometer
In a USDA Forest Service research project during the sum-
mers of 1970 and 1971, Wellman and Barraclough (1972) ob-
served and measured the amount of dust generated by logging,
recreation, and construction traffic on several types of aggre-
gate surfaced roads in the Winema National Forest. The dust
measurement technique employed photometric and sedimen-
tation methods. A stationary photoelectric device (densitome-
FIG. 1. Schematic of Densitometer
ter) was used to measure the dust density (i.e., air opacity).
The device consisted of a 12-V, 100-W aircraft landing light
used for illuminating the dust cloud produced by the passing
vehicles and a recorder that measured the percent of light
transmitted through the dust cloud. Dust fallout was also col-
lected using buckets in accordance with ASTM D 1739. The
setup of the test is shown in Fig. 1. Flash boxes were used to
determine vehicular speed. Many factors influenced the pro-
cedure, including temperature, humidity, sunlight, wind speed,
and direction. Although the photoelectric device (densitome-
ter) quantified the dust measurement directly in the field with-
out any laboratory measurement, it provided a measurement
valid for only a specific point along the road section. The study
concluded that the amount of dust generated by a vehicle tra-
versing a gravel road is related to the vehicle’s speed, gross
weight, the number of wheels, and the load shape factor that
influences the degree of turbulence created by the vehicle. The
study also showed that there was good correlation between the
dust density measurement and the dust fall measurement.
Dust Volume Sampler
In a USDA Forest Service dust abatement study, Langon
(1984) measured dust over a section of roadway instead of at
a particular point along the section. His explanation for using
a section descriptor instead of a point descriptor in the dust
quantification was that the characteristics of a road section,
such as upgrades, downgrades, curves, variation in road sur-
face material, moisture content, shading of the roadway by
trees, etc., influenced the variability of dust generation from
the section of roadway that cannot be quantified adequately
with buckets. Using the filtration sampling technique Langon
put together a device comprising a cyclone dust collector
mounted behind the left rear wheel of a 3/4-ton pickup truck.
As the test truck drives along the test section, dust kicked up
by the left wheel enters the cyclone dust collector, and at the
end of the run the dust collected is weighed. Driving the truck
at a constant speed of 25 mi/h, the amount of dust collected
ranged from 0 to 2.5 g/5,000-ft of roadway. A major problem
using this device was the amount of time between test runs.
The time to remove the sampler and prepare the sampler for
another test run allowed only a limited number of test runs in
a day.
Road Dust Monitor (RDM)
In a cooperative study by the Cornell University Local
Roads Program and the USDA Forest Service, Irwin et al.
(1986) developed and field tested a device based on the pho-
tometric principle called the RDM. The idea behind the RDM
was to provide a standard, repeatable, and quantitative method
of monitoring dust production from unpaved roads. One of the
objectives of the project was to provide USDA Forest Service
road managers with a more reliable and consistent approach
to deciding when to maintain an unpaved road, rather than the
qualitative method, which is based entirely on human judg-
ment and experience. The RDM consists of a 20 cm (8 in.) ⫻
30 cm (12 in.) galvanized sheet metal duct and an instrument
package. The duct, which has a transducer system mounted in
it, is positioned behind the rear wheel of a 1/2-ton pickup
truck.
Dust kicked up by the truck as it moves along the roadway
enters and passes through the duct. The transducer contains a
light source and a photoelectric sensor. The light beam shines
onto a reflector, and the reflected light is detected by the sen-
sor. Therefore, dust passing through the duct scatters or ab-
sorbs the light beam reducing the amount of light reflected
back to the sensor. The sensor measures the reflected light and
converts it to a voltage that is displayed on the indicating
meter position in the cab of the truck.
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The RDM measures the opacity of the air as the test truck
travels the unpaved road. A typical instrument response indi-
cates that the measured air opacity varies as the vehicle moves
along the roadway. The variations are explained to be due to
spotted sunlight, which gave a higher reading than the shaded
spots. Higher readings were measured on curves and lower
readings on upgrades. These inherent road variations, along
with changes in the types of surface material according to
Irwin et al. (1986) make it difficult to use a point response as
a valid measure of road dust levels. As a result of the variation
in road dust levels, a section descriptor rather than a point
descriptor is used to quantify the road dustiness in the RDM
procedure.
The major advantage of this method is the absence of lab-
oratory analyses of the dust measurements. The data are gen-
erated in real time; however, a problem with the RDM tech-
nique for measuring road dust is that the infrared transducer
and the sensor mounted in the metal duct needed frequent
cleaning and maintenance because they were always coated
with dust, thus affecting the accuracy of the dust measure-
ments.
Summary of Previous Work
A review of the dust measurement or sampling devices in-
dicates the value of the section measurement device versus a
point measurement device. The former allows the integrated
analysis of dust production on the entire road section, whereas
the latter is indicative of only one point along a road section;
therefore, the dust data are more susceptible to errors intro-
duced by changing wind directions and vehicle speed as well
as the number of vehicles. The section measurement devices
allows for the collection of a large amount of data in a single
day, whereas a point descriptor device generally generates one
data point in a month. The light scattering (photometric) tech-
niques, when mounted on a vehicle, produced section mea-
surements on real-time bases without any laboratory analyses.
The main issues with this measuring device are that it is rel-
atively expensive to build, and it has a calibration problem
because of a buildup of dust on the sensors.
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY DUSTOMETER—
AN EXPERIMENTAL ROAD DUST
MEASUREMENT DEVICE
Between the period of 1992–1995, a Mountain Plains Con-
sortium and department of transportation sponsored research
project entitled ‘‘Relative Effectiveness and Environmental
Impact of Road Dust Suppressants’’ was undertaken in the
Civil Engineering Department at Colorado State University
(Sanders et al. 1997). One of the objectives of the project was
to develop an inexpensive dust measuring device and a tech-
nique that could be used to evaluate the performance of dif-
ferent dust suppressing chemicals. This part of the paper there-
fore describes the dust measuring device and the technique
employed to assess the relative effectiveness of the different
dust suppressants, namely, calcium chloride, lignosulfate, and
magnesium chloride. In all, four 1-mi test sections were built:
three treated, and one untreated which served as the control.
Early attempts to measure the dust fallout from the test sec-
tions using the bucket method in accordance with ASTM D
1739 in the summer and fall of 1992 proved ineffective and
inefficient. The reasons were that (1) it was difficult to obtain
permission from the landowners to set up the dust collectors;
(2) the land along the test sections are grazing pastures, and
there was the problem of livestock continually tampering with
the dust collectors; and (3) the method requires too many ve-
hicles to drive by the buckets before a substantial amount of
dust can be collected for quantification. The prevailing wind
 FIG. 2. Half-Ton Truck with Attached Dustometer Used in Tests

FIG. 3. Rear View of Test Truck

speed and direction were also contributing factors influencing

how much of the dust fallout enters the buckets when a vehicle
passes by, and it would take at least a month to obtain a mea-
surable quantity and one data point.
Because of the problems with the bucket method, a decision
was made to develop a device and procedure to measure the
dust production from the test sections on a vehicle and on a
real-time basis. Taking into account the inherent variability
associated with road dust generation along a road, the method
should measure dust on a section of road rather than at a single
point. The method should also be quantitative and reproduci-
ble. Modeling a device similar to Langdon (1984), who used
a portable cyclone dust collector mounted behind a dust gen- FIG. 4. Schematic of Dustometer Attached to Truck
erating vehicle, the Colorado State University dustometer was
developed, field tested, and used in the research. The device
is illustrated in Fig. 2. It consists of (1) a 1/4-ton pickup truck; box and the road surface as shown in Fig. 4. The design of
(2) a 3,000-W electric generator; (3) a standard high volu- the box and bracket system is such that the box is rigidly
metric (1/3-horsepower) suction pump; (4) a fabricated metal secured to the bumper of the truck, but the box can be
box that contains a 25.40 ⫻ 20.32 cm (10 ⫻ 8 in.) glass fiber mounted and dismounted with relative ease for filter removal
filter paper; (5) a metal bracket attached to the bumper of the and replacement allowing many dust measurements in a single
truck; and (6) a 5.08 cm (2 in.) flexible tube for connecting day. The bracket is made out of 1/4-in. thick, 6-in. ⫻ 6-in.
the suction pump to the filter box. steel angle-treated with a rust proof paint and fixed to the
The filter box is rigidly secured to the bumper of the truck bumper of the truck with four 1/4-in. bolts. The filter box is
by way of the bracket behind the left rear wheel. The generator fabricated out of a galvanized steel sheet. It has a 25.4 ⫻ 25.4
and suction pump are secured in the bed of the truck (Fig. 3). cm (12 ⫻ 12 in.) opening that is covered with a 200-␮m mesh
The filter box when mounted behind the truck is horizontally sieve that faces the wheel. The mesh sieve prevents any non-
aligned with the left rear wheel. The distance from the center dust particles from being drawn onto the filter paper during
of the wheel to the front of the box is 0.9 m (3 ft). There is dust measurements. The bottom part of the box contains a
a vertical clearance of 0.3 m (1 ft) between the bottom of the sieve that supports the filter (Fig. 5). The dustometer is de-
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 FIG. 5. Dustometer Opened Showing Location of Filter Paper
FIG. 6. (a) Dustometer Mounted on Back Bumper of Test Truck; (b) Side View of Test Truck Showing Flexible Tube Connecting Suc-
tion Pump to Dustometer
signed to allow for easy removal and replacement of the filter
paper.
To run a typical dust measurement test, the Colorado State
University dustometer is set up as shown in Fig. 6 with the
flexible hose connecting the suction pump to the filter. Once
the generator is started, the pump can be turned on and off
from inside the cab of the truck making the dust measurement
completely a one person operation. For each test run the gen-
erator is started, and the truck is driven at a stipulated speed.
At the beginning of the 1-mi mark when the truck is moving
at the desired speed, the pump is turned on and a portion of
the dust kicked up by the rear left tire is drawn into the filter.
At the end of the 1-mi run the pump is turned off, and the
vehicle is then brought to a stop. Three runs were made in the
same driving lane for each of the four test sections in a single
day. The dust-laden filters were carefully removed from the
filter box after every run, placed in preweighed plastic bags,
taken to the laboratory, and weighed. The average of the three
measurements for each test section were compared to assess
the relative effectiveness of the different treatments.
To demonstrate the precision of the dustometer as an ex-
perimental road dust measurement device, nine replicate mea-
surements were taken on the 1-mi untreated test section at a
speed of 45 mi/h. Table 1 shows the data and its distribution.
A mean of 2.74 g was obtained with a standard deviation of
0.21, a variance of 0.04, and a coefficient of variation of 7%.
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TABLE 1. Typical Dust Measurement Data (Speed: 45 mi/h;
Length of Run: 1-mi; Test Section: Untreated)
Weight of dust
Sample number (g)
(1) (2)
1 2.85
2 2.60
3 2.83
4 2.86
5 2.87
6 2.47
7 2.62
8 2.48
9 3.09
Note: Mean = 2.74 g; standard deviation = 0.21 g; variance = 0.04 g.
As indicated by the data and its analysis, the dustometer is
quite precise for a field measurement device.
During the initial testing of the dustometer it became quite
obvious that the speed of a vehicle is a very important factor
in dust generation from unpaved roads. The faster the vehicle
travels, the more dust is generated. As a result, speed control
is one of the techniques employed for dust control on unpaved
gravel roads. To help quantify this phenomenon, dust mea-
surements at various speeds were made using the dustometer.
Fig. 7 shows the amount of dust sampled at speeds of 20, 30,

FIG. 7. Graph of Weight of Dust Generated versus Vehicle
Speed for 1-mi Run
FIG. 8. Graph of Weight of Dust Generated versus Vehicle
Speed for Run Time of 3 min
FIG. 9. Graph of Weight of Dust Generated versus Vehicle
Speed Using All of Data for Run Time of 3 min
40, and 50 mi/h from the untreated test section over a 1-mi
run. Because the dustometer dust measurement involves the
suction of dust as it is generated, the volume of the dust cloud
drawn is related to how long the suction pump is allowed to
run. This means that for the 1-mi run, the weight of dust drawn
will be different at each test period. To make the data in Fig.
7 comparable, the amounts of dust were adjusted for a 3-min
run to make the dust collection time equal for all the speeds.
Fig. 8 shows the adjusted data and indicates a linear relation-
ship between the speed and amount of dust generated. The
coefficient of linear regression r 2 for this plot is 0.98. The fact
that Fig. 8 appeared linear was surprising as visual inspection
and subsequent videotaping appeared to indicate a nonlinear
relationship.
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Additional dust data were collected later for speeds of 25,
35, and 45 mi/h to see if the relationship remains linear. Add-
ing these data points to the plot did not change the linear
relationship as shown in Fig. 9. The coefficient of linear re-
gression r 2 for the plot is 0.95. Approximately 2.3 g of dust
were measured at a speed of 20 mi/h, and about 7.3 g were
measured at 50 mi/h indicating a more than threefold increase
in dust generation.
CONCLUSIONS
The sedimentation, filtration, and photometric techniques of
air sampling have been the techniques employed by nearly all
attempts of measuring unpaved road dust. The resulting dust
measuring devices developed have been either a stationary de-
vice, which measured road dust at a particular point, or a mov-
ing device, which measured road dust over a section of road.
The Colorado State University dustometer, which employs the
filtration technique, improves on the existing moving devices.
Although the dustometer technique involves weighing of filters
in the laboratory, the technique is still fast, and it enables large
amounts of precise dust data to be gathered in a short period
of time. The dustometer measures directly the dust mass,
whereas other moving devices measure dust indirectly through
air opacity. The dustometer is simple to build, easy to operate,
and very inexpensive (less than $1,000.00/device).
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